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Monthly Archives: November 2011

The “their” refers to the USDA, and the “his” to Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Nutrition and dietary guidelines hit the airwaves today on Radio Boston.

Co-hosts Meghna Chakrabarti and Anthony Brooks will speak with Willett about the recommendations made in his Healthy Eating Plate, in contradistinction to the USDA’s MyPlate with its more laconic recommendations — recommendations influenced by food industry lobbyists. So argues Willett.

Chef Jody Adams of Rialto, and now Trade, will be live in the studio to suggest how to practically apply the plate’s guidelines in our daily eating lives. Listen in.

In my house we call panettone — that sweet, high, Italian holiday bread filled with dried fruit — “Poor Tony,” thanks to my son. He’s now six, but I can still hear him clamoring from his high-chair for more of that buttered, toasted goodness: “Poor Tony! Poor Tony!” It’s always on our breakfast table at Christmas.

And Christmas is fast approaching. Today, PRK brings you a photo essay from our friends at Berkshire Food Journal chronicling the making of two holiday classics European in origin: panettone and the German/Dutch stollen, both carefully coaxed into life over and over again during the months of November and December by Richard Bourdon and staff of Berkshire Mountain Bakery. Continue reading →

It’s always a rude awakening. Last week we were thinking about how much pie we want to eat on Thanksgiving; now, we’re pepper spraying innocent shoppers to get an XBox game.

Me, I like making Christmas gifts for people. Not only does it help save a bit of money (though I usually end up going wildly over budget anyway), it’s a little bit more meaningful than most anything you’re going to get at the mall. Especially for an edible gift, a good handmade present takes time and thought. You have to consider favorite tastes, potential allergies, and even whether or not the gift is going to invoke food-related guilt (don’t give a dieter your famous double-chocolate fudge, for instance).

Need some ideas? The Kitchn, as always, is a great resource. Here, they have a round-up of gifts to start making right now; for the procrastinators, however, they also have some good last-minute gifts.

Last year, a friend of mine and I began a unique Sunday tradition. We were both newcomers to Boston and, though we’re students at different universities, we worked hard to spend as much time together as we could.

In an effort to couple our quality time together with our desire to take full advantage of all the city has to offer, we would save what little money we had, indulge every two weeks or so on “Fancy Brunch” from one of Boston’s top restaurants. I can’t tell you how many egg dishes I ate, sides of bacon I ordered, or Belgian waffles I covered ever-so-generously with syrup. I cringe to think of how much my bank account suffered due to our midday Sunday spending sprees.

This year we’re older, wiser and probably poorer than before. We’ve decided to be a bit more practical. We now realize that spending over $10 on fried eggs is, most likely, not the best use of our money.

It is with this in mind that I was so excited to find a perfect Sunday morning, Fall-themed breakfast from A Boston Food Diary: Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup. A stack of these next to a full mug of coffee?? Woot! Plus, this recipe looks even better than what we could get anywhere else! So, we’ll save our discovered four-star eateries until Parents Weekend and fill our stomachs with this homemade breakfast instead.

Ever bountiful, The Garden of Eating blogger Eve Fox has compiled one of the most enticing collection of Thanksgiving recipes we’ve seen. But you might want to think twice before you tuck away her link as relevant only to this Thursday’s feast.

Fennel, yams, squash, turnips, winter greens, stuffing with cranberries, pies and candied pecans — this is the stuff of any great late Fall or Winter meal. There’s lots of wonderful cooking to be done in the months ahead! Eve Fox’s 23 Tried & True Thanksgiving Recipes.

“Stuffing is where the heart is,” Monique Truong writes in The New York Times Magazine. “As I grew older, I also understood its corollary: the heart is often elsewhere.”

My heart, apparently, usually lies with broth-soaked boxed stuffing — unsophisticated, salty and yet, somehow, crave-worthy. I was served it almost every Thanksgiving. It reminds me of my mom, my grandmother and other familial paragons of hardy New England un-fussiness. Our traditions remained unchanged since at least the 60s: our green beans courtesy of French’s recipe, our yams candied with mini marshmallows. Everything is soaked in butter and sopped up with Pillsbury crescent rolls. I miss it already.

See, this year is my first Thanksgiving dinner without my family — this year, I’m unable to make the trip up to Vermont, so I’m celebrating it with my boyfriend’s wonderful clan, a lively and hilarious and kindhearted bunch. And — oh yeah — they’re foodies. My boyfriend finds the idea of marshmallows baked on sweet potatoes disgusting. Their biscuits don’t come from tins. And I’m pretty sure their stuffing is made from bread purchased from an organic food co-op — if they don’t bake it themselves.

This is all exciting and wonderful, and I’m already salivating. I’m fairly sure that this will be the most delicious Thanksgiving I’ve ever eaten. But I know I’m going to feel my family’s absence. I think I’ll even taste it. One bite of the stuffing, and I’ll know it.

If you, too, will be missing your family this holiday, I recommend you read Truong’s essay, along with Amy’s at “Poor Girl Gourmet.” Both are about family. And, as it turns out: stuffing.